A war memorial and peace park, flanked by flag poles, is located on the spot where Japanese Lieutenant General Adachi signed the official surrender documents for his troops, and handed his sword over to Australian Major General Robertson on September 13, 1945.

Of the 100,000 Japanese troops only 13,000 survived to surrender.

History – conscious Wewak residents, despite the 60th anniversary of the surrender being three years away, are already making preparations for what they anticipate will be a very big event.

The Wewak area was the largest concentration of Japanese Army troops on mainland New Guinea.

The area near Wewak has a number of important topographical features.

The coastline is irregular, with capes jutting out from the shoreline, and the Japanese had prepared extensive defensive positions on these headlands.

It was an ideal strong hold, and was avoided by Allied ground forces until the very end of the war, and instead was neutralized by air attacks and isolated from resupply by other operations.